Irish fans left crying into their Guinness

Ireland football fans were left distraught on Sunday as the national team bowed out of the World Cup to Spain on penalties.

Reported by Indo-Asian News Service

Read Time: 2 mins

Dublin:

Ireland's football fans were left distraught on Sunday as the national team bowed out of the World Cup to Spain on penalties.
Almost every bar in the nation was packed to capacity for the occasion, with supporters wearing Irish replica shirts and coloured hats and waving the green, white and orange tri-colour flag.
Unfortunately, the script did not go to plan. Spain progressed to the quarter-finals 3-2 on penalties after the dramatic match was tied 1-1 after 90 minutes of regulation time and 30 minutes of extra time.
"It's always tough in situations like that, but the team played well all through the tournament," Jamie Duffy, 23, from Cork said. "I'll have to go and console myself with a few Guinness beers though".
Dubliner Jonathan Bell, 30, said Ireland was amazing the entire tournament. "The quarter-finals would have been terrific but Ireland is always the underdog," Bell said. "At some stage we will get through but it was not our time this time".
Nathan Thomson, 29, watched the match from an Irish pub in London. "Yes, we're devastated but the whole team will return heroes nonetheless," he said.
In Dublin, a pall of gloom spread amongst hundreds of thousands of fans watching TV coverage. Many of the pubs had been permitted to open early to ensure customers were in position for the early afternoon kickoff, although they were not allowed to serve drinks until a few minutes before the match started.
Cities, towns and villages throughout the country were almost completely deserted when the game started and in Dublin bus services were temporarily suspended for the duration of the fixture.
The expectant TV audience cheered every Irish move during the opening stages of the tie but Spain's win was greeted with almost total silence. (AP)